Wow, what a crazy night! As much as I like rain, the amount we have had in the last 3 weeks has been unbelieivable. And seeing that much water.... ( warning, long entry).....
Yesterday was a weird day. I spent it cleaning house for company coming over and watching it rain yet again. In the afternoon, city workers put notices in our mailboxes notifing everyone that lived near the river to take percautions against flood ( ie: removing valuebles from basement etc.). I read the notice and kinda glazed over the fact, thinking nothing of it. I had checked the basement and there was minor flooding( nothing that could not be controlled by a towel). The house we live in is a old 1912 pre fab house, 800 square feet, that has an undeveloped basement. The concrete is old and chipped/cracked every where. So in came a little water from outside.
Later in the afternoon Andvaricame home, panicked, worried that the flooding was worse. The City had barricaded our block off and as well as the main streets that lead to this area, so he had a hard time getting home. He works downtown which is on the other side of the river. After I showed him the notice we started to take everything out of the basement, including my studio. You never realise how much stuff you own until you have to move it. My friend who had showed up, helped us lugg everything into our small living space.
After all that was done, we walked over the the river to get a quick look at how bad it was. The River was twenty times the size it was originally, flowing by so rapidly. Nothing could survive the currant. I was shocked at how high it was. Thankfully the city had built a levey ,long ago, on the side of the river, that was about 10 to 12 feet higher then the ground level of the road and our block. Now the river was about 2 feet away from the top of the levey. City crews were on the road trying to drain the water that was escaping over the levey. It was a site. My Friends and I hada movie we had planned to catch so we started to head back.Andvari wasgoingto talk a walk around the island park that sits in the center of the river and see what was happening. We said our goodbyes and I hesitantly went off with my friends. Let's just say I didn't really enjoy the movie and that my mind was else where. Two hours later I returned home to find our basement totally dry and Andvari hanging out at the computer. He began to tell me about what he had seem and the pictures he took, me trying to imagine what he was descibing. We decide to jump on our bikes and take a look. I am so glad we did. I have always found that being such a visual person it is better for me to see something to have it decribed to me.
What we say was amazing. We crossed the pedestiran bridge tha went over the river and saw that in had submerge an eighth of the island edge. Grass areas on the island were tranformed into lakes at everyturn. The goose population were huddling on any dry patch they could find. There was a levey, conecting to down town that is used as road access to the island, That was washed out completely. Pipes, platform, concrete and all. The water rushed over it, quickly pulling away more as it sped along. It was at this piont the the level of the river was trying to equalize with the level of the man made canal, ands it was leveling it as fast as it could. I found myself mesmerized by it. I have never really seen that kind of natural destruction, it was fascinating and shocking at the same time. Andvari keep asking if I was alright, with all the stoppping and staring I was doing. It was amazing. definently a Kodak momment. I was also amazed at all the people out walking around the park, checking out the damage and the river, like ourselves. Interesting thing was, I got the impression that most of them did not even live in the area and were just tourists to disaster.
We biked home and I finally fell asleep to dreaming about being flood by this event.
Yesterday was a weird day. I spent it cleaning house for company coming over and watching it rain yet again. In the afternoon, city workers put notices in our mailboxes notifing everyone that lived near the river to take percautions against flood ( ie: removing valuebles from basement etc.). I read the notice and kinda glazed over the fact, thinking nothing of it. I had checked the basement and there was minor flooding( nothing that could not be controlled by a towel). The house we live in is a old 1912 pre fab house, 800 square feet, that has an undeveloped basement. The concrete is old and chipped/cracked every where. So in came a little water from outside.
Later in the afternoon Andvaricame home, panicked, worried that the flooding was worse. The City had barricaded our block off and as well as the main streets that lead to this area, so he had a hard time getting home. He works downtown which is on the other side of the river. After I showed him the notice we started to take everything out of the basement, including my studio. You never realise how much stuff you own until you have to move it. My friend who had showed up, helped us lugg everything into our small living space.
After all that was done, we walked over the the river to get a quick look at how bad it was. The River was twenty times the size it was originally, flowing by so rapidly. Nothing could survive the currant. I was shocked at how high it was. Thankfully the city had built a levey ,long ago, on the side of the river, that was about 10 to 12 feet higher then the ground level of the road and our block. Now the river was about 2 feet away from the top of the levey. City crews were on the road trying to drain the water that was escaping over the levey. It was a site. My Friends and I hada movie we had planned to catch so we started to head back.Andvari wasgoingto talk a walk around the island park that sits in the center of the river and see what was happening. We said our goodbyes and I hesitantly went off with my friends. Let's just say I didn't really enjoy the movie and that my mind was else where. Two hours later I returned home to find our basement totally dry and Andvari hanging out at the computer. He began to tell me about what he had seem and the pictures he took, me trying to imagine what he was descibing. We decide to jump on our bikes and take a look. I am so glad we did. I have always found that being such a visual person it is better for me to see something to have it decribed to me.
What we say was amazing. We crossed the pedestiran bridge tha went over the river and saw that in had submerge an eighth of the island edge. Grass areas on the island were tranformed into lakes at everyturn. The goose population were huddling on any dry patch they could find. There was a levey, conecting to down town that is used as road access to the island, That was washed out completely. Pipes, platform, concrete and all. The water rushed over it, quickly pulling away more as it sped along. It was at this piont the the level of the river was trying to equalize with the level of the man made canal, ands it was leveling it as fast as it could. I found myself mesmerized by it. I have never really seen that kind of natural destruction, it was fascinating and shocking at the same time. Andvari keep asking if I was alright, with all the stoppping and staring I was doing. It was amazing. definently a Kodak momment. I was also amazed at all the people out walking around the park, checking out the damage and the river, like ourselves. Interesting thing was, I got the impression that most of them did not even live in the area and were just tourists to disaster.
We biked home and I finally fell asleep to dreaming about being flood by this event.
optimism:
I'm trying to picture it. Where do you live?
andvari:
Comment 1001